1. Field of the invention
The invention relates to the field of protection technology and station management technology.
It proceeds from a device for monitoring the switch position of a switch. It further relates to a process for monitoring a switch position.
2. Discussion of Background
Devices for monitoring a switch position are used, for example, for high-voltage and medium-voltage switching systems. The high-voltage switch must be monitored and exhibits, for this purpose, a series of auxiliary switches which are mechanically coupled to the high-voltage switch. The auxiliary switches are connected to an auxiliary voltage source. The auxiliary voltage source is preferably designed as a low voltage source. On account of the mechanical coupling, it is possible to infer directly the switch position of the high voltage switch from the switch position of the auxiliary switch. This brings with it the great advantage that it is not necessary to handle any high voltages for the detection of the switch position.
However, the auxiliary voltage sources are different from system to system, so that a specific monitoring device must be produced for each system.
Similar problems to those in the case of switch monitoring occur in the case of a monitoring device which is described in EP-B1-0 160 235. The invention according to this publication achieves the object of monitoring the trip circuit of a power switch for interruption of the supply lines and for short circuiting of the trip coil, without a specifically associated power supply being necessary for the monitoring device. In this case, the trip circuit is to be connectable to differing supply voltages.
Accordingly, the trip voltage of the system is expediently used for the power supply to the monitoring device. The current takeup of the monitoring device is constant, so that the adaptation to differing trip voltages is possible by means of series resistors. On this basis, it is indeed no longer necessary to design a specific circuit for each system, but the circuits must always still be adapted subsequently to the auxiliary voltage sources.
For the automated production of such circuits, it would however be desirable if the circuits did not have to be adapted once again. Furthermore, it would be desirable if not only the binary information "open/closed" but also the magnitude of the auxiliary voltage could be detected and transmitted.